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Walmart has just announced that beginning this Saturday, December 5th at 8 AM, they will be giving customers a $50 gift card with every Nintendo Wii purchase, bringing the net price of the console down to just $149.99 — and that is by far the absolute best deal on for the Wii we’ve seen so far this holiday season.
The promotional offer lasts until December 12, or while supplies last. Our guess is that the “while supplies last” part will end the promotion well before the 12th. We’d recommend getting their bright and early Saturday if you wanted to take advantage of the offer. No word yet on whether they will make this offer available online as well.
Our friends at Black Friday Ads just announced that Dell has the Nintendo Wii for $179.99 with free shipping, $20 below retail for the Wii. Retailers are not allowed to advertise the Wii for under MSRP, so you need to add the Wii to your shopping cart to see the discounted price. This deal probably won’t be around long, so act quickly if a Wii is on your holiday shopping list.
ANY discount off the already reduced Wii will be a good deal this holiday season and the Dell deal is particularly attractive if you only want the console. The prediction is that you may find some deals on Wii bundles, but the gaming console alone won’t be discounted at major retailers.
EA Games has just released Tiger Woods 10 for the Nintendo Wii and Tiger was back on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon for a next-day rematch on the 11th hole at U.S. Open course Bethpage Black. The previous day, Fallon beat Woods by 1 stroke in the middle of Times Square. The golf ain’t pretty, but the game looks pretty cool. Here’s a clip of the showdown:
Time to buy stock in TV manufacturers. CTA Digital, a game and technology accessories company, is rolling out (pun intended) a Nintendo Wii bowling ball. Insert your Nintendo Wii remote in the center of the ball, stick your fingers in and let ‘er rip. Despite the warning on their website ” …make sure to wear the wrist strap securely around your wrist, lock the strap to tighten the hold, preventing the ball from accidently flying out of your hand…” I forsee scores of “Wii Bowling Ball Meets TV” YouTube videos of in the making.
Nintendo’s Mario Kart series is known for its action packed gameplay and awesome split-screen multiplayer. While Mario Kart DS made a decent online debut, Mario Kart Wii will be the first game in the series that includes online on a home console. So far, it seems like Nintendo is really pushing Mario Kart’s online potential!
Nintendo previously announced that Mario Kart Wii will use a â€œMario Kart Channelâ€ which will be accessible even while Mario Kart is not in the Disk Drive. You will be able to use this channel to view and download ghost data from any Mario Kart Player around the world.
The Channel also letâ€™s you register your friends, and although they are still using friend codes, you will be able see your friends online status! This is a huge step for Nintendoâ€™s rather protective online program.
The Channel even allows you to view the current rankings and competition around the world. Competitions are challenges that Nintendo will invite people to on a regular basis, similar to the challenges featured on Mario Kart DS.
Although voice chat would be nice and we could do without the friend-codes, it looks like Nintendoâ€™s online interface is looking up!


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Electric vehicle (EV) seems to be the rising trend in the automotive industry nowadays. As such, numerous EVs from different Japanese manufacturers were displayed at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show.
With that in mind, some of the EVs exhibited during the said show were the Isuzu N-Series, the E-Fuso and the ECanter light trucks. Isuzu and Fuso also displayed their respective battery systems and charging stations.
Now that the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP) is already in full swing here in the country, the member companies of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Philippines (EVAP) plans to upgrade and modernize around 10% of the total 200,000 new Eco PUVs over the next 5 to 6 years.
“We will be working closely with the two brands to explore if the EV chassis will be available in the Philippine market as a platform in time for the PUV Modernization Program. We are very optimistic about this as no less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself has expressed his 100% support to the PUVMP. It is expected that the modern Eco PUVs that will include the modern electric PUV jeepneys will be fielded by early next year.”
In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), together with Philippine Parts Makers Association (PPMA) recently introduced various prototypes of the locally-made Eco PUVs that the industry will supply to the PUVMP.
Moreover, the next phase of the project is said to be the pilot testing of the vehicles in actual jeepney routes. This phase is deemed necessary in order to evaluate the Eco PUVs performance before it hits mass production.

domain: news


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Ardmore Advertising founder John Keane to front $2.5bn global industry body Worldwide Partners Inc
JOHN Keane, managing director of Ardmore Advertising and chair of its sister public relations firm LK Communications, has been appointed vice-chair of Colorado-based Worldwide Partners Inc, a global advertising and marketing communications network comprising more than 65 independent agencies employing 4,500 people across 50 countries.
Advertising industry veteran Keane joins an established senior management team at WPI, whose partner agencies manage more than $2.5 billion in worldwide advertising expenditures for clients including Lufthansa, Samsung, Pfizer, Nike, Mini, Procter & Gamble, 3M and Caterpillar.
Ardmore, which Keane founded in 1989, joined WPI in 2013 and was awarded ‘Perfect Partner’ status a year later for its innovative approach to delivering successful research-based campaigns and for its commitment to knowledge-sharing, education and best industry practice.
He said: “I'm delighted to have the opportunity to support the development and strategic direction of WPI, which is a shining example of the collective responsibility the industry takes in working together to build a globally-connected advertising and marketing sector which puts integrity, best industry practice and shared learning at its heart."


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Apple released watchOS 2.0 for the Apple Watch on Monday following an unexpected delay that prevented its rollout along side iOS 9 last week. The update improves overall watch performance, and adds support for native third-party apps.
Apple releases watchOS 2.0
watchOS 2.0 also adds support for remotely wiping your Apple Watch if it's lost or stolen, improves Siri's capabilities, and adds new watch faces along with third-party watch face complications.
Apple didn't release watchOS 2.0 on Wednesday like it originally planned thanks to a bug the company felt was significant enough to warrant a delay. The company didn't say what the problem was, but it most likely stemmed from a FairPlay copy protection issue developer James Thomson discovered that could prevent native Apple Watch apps from running.
watchOS 2.0 is free, and is compatible with all Apple Watch models. To install the update, launch the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, then go to General > Software Update.


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In the third and final Senate Energy & Commerce Committee hearing this week on health IT, Christy Foreman, director of device evaluation in FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, promised the release of the agency's final guidance on its oversight over medical mobile apps (MMAs) by the end of this fiscal year. Looming regulatory uncertainty dominated discussion with healthcare and mobile industry witnesses during the past two hearings, with many urging FDA to finalize its 2011 draft guidance detailing its oversight approach.
“We recognize that mobile health application developers and manufacturers need a clear, predictable and reasonable understanding of the agency’s expectations,” Foreman said at the March 21 Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing.
Also, Foreman put an end to circulating fears that a 2.3 percent medical device excise tax would be applied to mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.
“Thank goodness the myth of the iPhone tax has been put to rest,” said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), calling the three hearings “redundant.”
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) also lamented the amount of committee time and attention devoted to health IT. “This tax issue is a nonissue,” he said. “There are too many other pressing issues in this committee to get bogged down in inaccurate information and a nonexistent iPhone tax.”
“I don’t think [the hearings] are redundant, they are essential. We want innovators to know with certainty how they’ll be dealt with as an industry,” weighed in Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).
At the hearing, Foreman elucidated FDA thinking on its regulatory approach that is expected “in coming months” in the final guidance. She said the agency is poring through 130 comments, which are mostly positive, on the 2011 draft.
“Just as important as what the policy proposes is what the policy does not propose,” Foreman stated. Specifically, she said FDA oversight:
- would not regulate the sale or general consumer use of smartphones or tablets;
- would not consider entities that exclusively distribute MMAs, such as the owners and operators of the iTunes App store or the Android market, to be medical device manufacturers;
- would not consider mobile platform manufacturers to be medical device manufacturers just because their mobile platform could be used to run an FDA-regulated mobile medical app;
- would not require mobile MMA developers to seek FDA re-evaluation for minor, iterative product changes; and
- would not regulate mobile apps that perform the functionality of an EHR system or personal health record system.
FDA, which has approved about 100 apps since 1997, will focus its resources on “a small subset of apps” that pose the greatest risk to patient safety, Foreman said. Lifestyle apps like pedometers and those that search medical books or remind a patient to refill a prescription do not apply.
Apps related to SPO2 monitors, ultrasounds, X-rays, central monitoring stations for nurses and others that measure “critical parameters” of patient conditions are under FDA’s regulatory arm, she said. FDA would ensure MMAs are sophisticated enough to assist in a diagnosis; for instance, whether a radiological imagine on a smartphone has sufficient specificity to detect cancer. Avoiding false negatives or positives that put a patient’s safety at risk is central to FDA oversight, she said.
“As an example, mobile apps that affect the programming of a drug infusion pump or computed tomography scanner could lead to a drug or radiation overdose. An inaccurate or malfunctioning mobile medical app that uses a sensor to diagnose skin cancer or to measure critically low blood oxygen levels in chronic lung disease patients, could delay lifesaving diagnosis and treatment,” Foreman elaborated in her testimony.
Apps under FDA oversight must meet the definition of a medical device. For the apps that require preapproval through the 510(k) process, she said that, on average, it takes the agency 67 days to make a decision, which is within its 90-day statutory deadline.
Foreman stressed that FDA has a long history of balancing innovation while assuring appropriate patient protections, with decades of experience reviewing medical device software. She said the agency preapproves about 20 apps per year, which is less than 5 percent of its workload.
On a side note, concerns about interoperability also played out in the hearing, and were explored with the second witness: Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health IT. As many legislators echoed concerns that hospital systems fail to exchange electronic data, he said certification criteria going into effect in 2014 will address the issue by standardizing certain measures across all platforms.
Providers “will see a palpable difference once certification criteria are in place,” he said.


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In the COVID-19 battle, did we leave our best players on the bench?
When it comes to battling COVID-19, did we leave our best players on the bench? We have the world's best technologists, the most sophisticated capabilities in the U.S., and yet, when the pandemic hit, it seems like we focused solely on throwing manpower at the problem, instead of technology which is proven to improve safety and productivity, and reduce costs.
Maybe that was the right thing to, but that still begs the question: were our best players sitting this out? And what could we have accomplished if we had pulled technology into the battle, which now seems to be a protracted one at that?
How did tech get left out? Did our Government inadvertently forget about it, or was it something else? Regardless of the impetus, here’s what we know: when the pandemic hit, many technology companies remained focused on selling instead of offering up their tech and expertise to assist customers on the front lines.
We heard from our customers that one tech company is charging a significant amount to scale-up quickly for remote access in response to COVID-19. Another tech company said they wouldn’t consider any variations in pricing, terms, or support. And, sadly, another tech company is dissolving the Inflection partnership for EPCS identity proofing, leaving customers scrambling for an alternative while dealing with the pandemic.
So, what did Imprivata do differently? We stayed true to our mantra, “Don’t let technology get in the way.” We believe that technology should work like antilock brake technology: it’s safe, it’s inexpensive, and it’s silent - helping us without forcing us to do anything different.
How did we do that?
We didn’t sell. To let our customers remain focused on getting their situation under control in order to focus on patients and keep them alive, we stepped in and offered no-cost licenses of our various technologies. To date, we’ve supported 180+ customers with 735,000+ no-cost licenses and customers have been very grateful that we gave them that room to handle this emergency.
We stayed out of our customers way. As our customers were being overwhelmed, we backed off and aggregated all of our advice and best practices into a COVID-19 webpage with usable, technical use cases from 20+ customers who are using innovative technology to fight COVID. We offered this resource to customers at no-cost. The web page cases created an opportunity for people to learn from each other and customers found these use-cases immensely helpful.
We all turned into customer support engineers. We made ourselves available to our customers, whenever they needed us, offering free services, consulting, and anything else we could provide to help them stay focused on patients.
Additionally, Imprivata solutions have helped our customers to mitigate risk and manage response with methods to:
Reduce the risk of spreading infectious disease with no-touch workflows;
Enable a seamless experience for new and remote clinical workflows;
Support low-touch, remote implementation and managed services; and
Improve security and maintain compliance by adapting digital identity strategies and solutions.
We’ve done our part to bring technology into the COVID-19 battle and we urge other tech companies to follow suit. Health IT can, and should, do so much more to support our customers on the front lines.


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Uniqlo shines out among stricken retailers
A sudden cold snap, a cartoon robot, T-shirts sold in tubes, and a stylish range of high tech thermal underwear have provided a rare glint of success on Japan’s increasingly dreadful retail scene, and sharpened Uniqlo’s bid for global domination of low-price fashion.
Investors in the company now believe that Uniqlo management is looking seriously at acquisitions in the UK, where it already has a foothold, and in the US, where asset prices have fallen heavily in recent weeks. A massively strengthened yen rate against sterling and the US dollar are expected to accelerate plans, which are expected to focus on brands with a strong name for design, rather than low price.
With all signs now pointing to Japan being in its sharpest recessionary plunge since the Second World War, the Uniqlo chain of low-priced clothing has scored a spectacular hit: Fast Retailing, the parent company of the brand, said yesterday that same store sales soared over 32 per cent in November, smashing through to a record high.
In the same period, footfall across its store network surged nearly 26 per cent as millions of Japanese consumers tightened their purse strings and simultaneously ditched their hunger for more famous - and more expensive - brands.
The company remains in aggressive expansion mode. It now has a worldwide network of 54 stores outside Japan. Britain, France and the US are all counted among countries that Uniqlo considers converts to the brand. The company has pushed into other Asian markets and is poised to take on Russia: a country that has its own strong views on how to dress fashionably in sub-zero temperatures. Tadashi Yanai, the president of Fast Retailing who has set himself a Y1 trillion annual sales target by the end of 2010, admitted in a recent interview that the company needed to go on the merger trail in the US and Europe to achieve those numbers.
Market analysts at Nomura said that the company was positioned to behave as a contrarian indicator for dwindling activity elsewhere on the Japanese high street. The surprisingly strong performance at Uniqlo, they said, was “hard evidence” that the global recession is biting the Japanese retail scene more fiercely and more rapidly than the market had expected.
In a research note published yesterday, Seiji Shiraishi, an economist at HSBC, warned markets to abandon hopes that the Japanese consumer would ride to the world’s rescue as a force for growth or stability. In a stark warning to clients, he said that Japanese personal consumption has only declined once since the end of the American occupation in 1955, but that markets should expect it to do so again in 2009.
But the November surge in sales was not repeated across other Japanese discount clothing chains. Uniqlo, said analysts, has managed to hit a “winning formula” of using high performance material in unique pieces of clothing: although the products are famously low price, it has effectively managed to kill any snobbery that would mark it out as “cheap”. These factors, said KBC’s Japan retail analyst, were combined with a very slick and effective marketing campaign and “shot the lights out” of the market now that people need to stay warm on a budget.
Even before the winter chills set in, Uniqlo had experimented with other retail tricks – one of the more successful involved devoting entire stores to T-shirts with designs based on nostalgic cartoons and comics and sold in plastic tubes.
Uniqlo, as a brand, forged its reputation in Japan in the late 1990s when it released a range of cheap winter fleeces and down-stuffed jackets. Interest in the fleeces fizzled badly as the Asian Financial Crisis crawled into memory and people felt wealthier. As more bullish times returned, Japanese drifted from Uniqlo and pitched their ambitions higher up the price scale: but now, in a country suddenly faced with mass layoffs among temporary workers, frozen wages and dropping winter temperatures, Uniqlo has succeeded in raising the average spend among shoppers entering its stores.


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Hotel-condo hybrid is coming to Austin. Take a look around
A hybrid condo-hotel building is sprouting up on Rainey Street in Austin. And now the public can take a look at its projected completed look.
Dubbed Natiivo Austin, the 33-story tower will feature 249 furnished units that can be rented for the night or outright purchased. Buyers have the option to lease them out, too, which will should be efficient since Airbnb has signed on to facilitate bookings and offer its "Airbnb Experience" packages.
A perk that both residents and guests will share: hotel amenities like a modern fitness center, 24-hour concierge service and valet.
HoustonChronicle.com: Go inside Houston's top luxury hotels
On Wednesday, architecture firm Austin-based STG Design and New York-based INC Architecture and Design revealed renderings of their upcoming project. The two design firms collaborated on the interior and exterior spaces to dream up a bold, modern aesthetic.
Sixteen floorplans will give guests several options from which to choose, each either studios, one- or two-bedroom spaces. While hotel-stay rates haven't been announced, these will be available to buy starting at $500,000 and ranging up to roughly $1.2 million. However, Natiivo is being permitted as a hotel, so buyers will not be able to claim this as their permanent residence.
STG Design principal Jim Stephenson told Curbed Austin that their plan was to explore "the interplay between Austin’s urban environment and its natural surroundings.”
Their intention going into the project, he said, was to seamlessly merge green spaces with modern amenities and community-minded spaces. To that end, a 10th-floor terrace with a lawn has a swimming pool lined by shaded cabanas and connected to a communal clubhouse.
Natiivo Austin is expected to debut in the fall of this year. Another Natiivo concept is also in the works for Miami.


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FORTUNE — Like many Wall Street analysts who follow Apple (AAPL), Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty likes to issue estimates for the current quarter the day after the company reports the previous quarter’s results — and then stick with those numbers for the next three months.
But on Thursday — two weeks before the company is scheduled to report its earnings for fiscal Q2 2013 — the dependably conservative analyst broke from tradition and revised her Apple estimates.
The biggest change: Citing “supply chain data points,” she lowered her iPhone estimate by 4 million units (11%) and raised her iPad number by 3 million (also 11%, but in the opposite direction).
Her revised iPad number (21 million) is now one of the highest on the Street and her iPhone estimate (33 million) one of the lowest.
She also trimmed her Mac sales and gross margin numbers, which brought her top line (revenue) down 4% to $41.4 billion and her bottom line (EPS) down 5% to 9,59. Her new price target is $600, down from $630.
Huberty added that she expects Apple to:
- Roughly double its annual cash return to $25-30 billion, partly by increasing dividend yield to over 3% (from 2.5%) and the rest through buybacks.
- Improve Apple’s existing Internet-based services, such as iCloud and Maps, and launch new ones, such as music streaming and perhaps mobile payments (“a killer app,” in her words).
- Release new iPhones some time after June, including an updated iPhone 5 and a lower-priced iPhone for emerging markets.
- Release a new iPad, also after June.
- Announce new carrier partnerships with NTT Docomo and China Mobile, in the second half of 2013 or 2014.
Among the 60 or so analysts we’ve polled for our quarterly Earnings Smackdown, a dozen are still using their January estimates.


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Some serious money has been sent the way of various insurance startups over the past week. Investors backed cutting-edge commercial lines and cyber insurance products as well as advances in texting communications, producer management and licensing compliance, and digital risk management for financial institutions.
Here’s a wrap-up of some recent major funding commitments as reported by Carrier Management.
Corvus Insurance is prepping a major expansion and surge in its commercial lines and cyber product development now that it has secured $100 million in new venture capital financing.
Insight Partners led the Boston startup’s Series C funding round, with participation from Telstra Ventures, Obvious Ventures, .406 Ventures, Bain Capital, Hudson Structured Capital Management and MTech Capital.
“With the biggest fundraising round of a cyber insurance company to date, we will continue to realize our vision in making our world a safer place,” Corvus CEO and founder Phil Edmundson said in prepared remarks.
Corvus, launched in 2017, is a managing general agency providing commercial insurance products through artificial-intelligence-driven risk data. The company plans to use its new funding to double down on its underwriting, product development and go-to-market strategies. It will also focus on expanding its Crowbar digital platform, which is designed to provide cyber risk data through an “exceptional digital experience” to brokers and policyholders.
With those AI capabilities, Corvus hopes to better predict and prevent loss, and reimagine how policyholders, brokers, underwriters, and reinsurers can incorporate data science into the commercial insurance marketplace.
Corvus previously raised its $33 million Series B round in 2020. To date, the company has pulled in $147 million in venture capital investment. With the new round, Corvus claimed its valuation is now at $750 million.
In addition to new product development, Corvus has an eye on expanding its product footprint “to all major U.S. regions” and to expand its hiring. A spokesperson noted the company currently employs 140 people, a number that grew 172 percent in 2020 along with some senior hires. With the new funding, Corvus hopes to more than double its headcount in 2021.
- Related: Corvus CEO Edmundson: InsurTech and Cyber Cover Offer a Potent Mix
- Related: Expecting the Unexpected: Cyber Lessons from COVID and What Could Be Ahead
More on AI, Cyber
Cowbell Cyber nailed down $20 million in new venture capital financing from multiple investors. The managing general agency provides multi-faceted cyber insurance and related services to small and medium-sized businesses using a digital platform that relies on artificial intelligence.
The new capital will be used to fund product development, expand risk engineering, sales, marketing, and increase Cowbell’s footprint nationwide. Jack Kudale, Cowbell Cyber’s founder and CEO, said that his company’s emergence is at a crucial time for cybersecurity awareness.
“Cybersecurity is now a risk management issue that is critical to the future of the insurance industry and is evolving at a pace that insurers have rarely seen,” Kudale said in prepared remarks. “Cowbell Cyber has capitalized on businesses’ accelerated digitization and an ever-changing threat landscape.”
Brewer Lane Ventures led the investment round and Brewer Lane managing partner Martha Notaras will join the Cowbell board of directors. Notaras previously was a partner at XL Innovate, a P/C insurtech VC fund that invested in Lemonade, as well as Cape Analytics and Slice, among other companies.
Pivot Investment Partners also participated in the financing, along with Avanta Ventures, Markel Corp., and existing investors ManchesterStory, Tri-Valley Ventures, and Holmes Murphy. Akbar Poonawala, co-founder at Pivot Investment Partners, will join Cowbell Cyber as a board observer, the company said.
The investment follows Cowbell Cyber’s September 2020 launch of its Prime 250 program, which allows insurance agents to issue personalized cyber policies – a program that has since expanded to 38 states.
Cowbell uses AI as the basis for its standalone and tailored programs designed to protect businesses from crippling cyber threats. The company touts its “closed-loop” approach to cyber risk as being especially helpful, as it bundles cybersecurity awareness training, continuous risk assessment, and pre and post-breach risk improvement services. Its cyber policies help policyholders to be proactive about managing cyber risks.
Cowbell’s continuous risk assessment services, Cowbell Factors, are available free, on-demand to all businesses.
Source: Carrier Management/Cowbell Cyber
Hi Marley raised $25 million in new funding it will use to fuel further expansion of its AI-enabled texting platform for the insurance industry.
Emergence Capital led the Boston-based insurtech’s Series B financing round, after which founder and general partner Gordon Ritter is taking a seat on Hi Marley’s board. Returning firms Underscore, True Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures and Greenspring also participated along with additional investors including Brewer Lane.
“Our goals, which [Ritter] and the Emergence team are poised to help us achieve, are to continue to expand across the enterprise, with new ways to communicate while surfacing valuable insights that ultimately help insurers create more lovable experiences,” Mike Greene, CEO and co-founder of Hi Marley, said in prepared remarks.
Hi Marley is deigned to make it simple for insurance carriers to communicate with policyholders via text. Its platform centers around a smart SMS platform built for the insurance industry, inside of which carriers, agents, brokers, service providers and customers can all communicate.
Hi Marley’s plans for its new financing round include creating new features for its platform, ensuring the platform scales across the enterprise, and adding to Hi Marley’s engineering, sales and customer success organizations, among others.
Source: Carrier Management/Hi Marley
AgentSync pulled in a $25 million round of financing, money it plans to use for expansion of its producer distribution management and licensing compliance software.
“We’re solving for some of the most inefficient processes bogging down the trillion-dollar insurance market,” AgentSync co-founder and chief executive Niji Sabharwal said in prepared remarks. “Our core product is already creating positive change for our customers, and we’re excited to keep building for an industry that’s eager to adopt innovative, automated technology to work smarter, not harder.”
Elad Gil, a former Twitter executive, led the Series A round along with David Sacks’ Craft Ventures. Marc Benioff, Caffeinated Capital, Operator Collective, and Nine Four Ventures also participated.
With the new financing, AgentSync claims its valuation has reached $220 million – 10 times higher than after its seed funding round in the middle of 2020. The Colorado-based startup launched in 2018.
AgentSync Manage is the company’s first product. It uses automation and technology to facilitate producer management and licensing compliance. Built on the Salesforce platform and direct integration with NIPR (National Insurance Producer Registry), it is designed to create efficiencies and enable carriers, agencies, and MGAs to grow and scale. AgentSync claims some well-known early customers including Hippo Insurance, Lemonade, Hub International, Embroker, iptiQ (a subsidiary of Swiss Re), Beam Dental, Centene and Rippling.
AgentSync is developing a comprehensive platform with tools both upstream and downstream of its core licensing compliance product to position the company to meet a full range of needs, it said.
Source: Carrier Management/AgentSync
Allianz’s technology investment arm is committing $75 million to WeLab, a Hong Kong-based fintech focused on virtual banking, consumer financing and other related digital services. The deal also includes a strategic partnership.
The insurer’s Allianz X digital investment unit committed the money as part of WeLab’s Series C financing round. Allianz said the company is now one of a number of Asian startups in its investment portfolio.
Plans call for using the funds to fuel WeLab’s further expansion and development of its technology platform.
Also, Allianz and WeLab are now deepening their strategic cooperation. The companies expect to jointly develop digital products and services in areas including wealth management, starting in Hong Hong. Eventually, they are eying an expansion of their cooperation into Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
WeLab first launched in 2013. Its services include digital banking services and loans for private customers, a digital lending platform to connect lenders and borrowers, and a number of technology-driven services to support financial institutions in their lending processes. WeLab currently operates in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Indonesia. The company touts nearly 50 million retail customers and 600 corporate customers. Its WeLab Bank in Hong Kong launched in 2019 and is one of the first fully-licensed digital banks in Asia, the company claims.
WeLab’s technology includes a proprietary risk management system based on artificial intelligence and a patented privacy computing product that ensures the secure transfer of sensitive data.
Allianz X’s other recent Asian investments have focused on telemedicine company Halodoc; digital real estate brokerage 99.co, and GoJek, a digital company that offers a wide range of services on its platform, from taxi rides to food delivery and mobile payments. BIMA, a digital insurance provider in emerging and developing markets, is another Allianz X portfolio company with extensive business in Asia, Allianz noted.
Source: Carrier Management/Allianz
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Orders overnight from China for New Zealand infant formula have dropped significantly in the wake of a contamination threat.
Police revealed yesterday they had spent more than three months investigating a threat to poison infant and other milk formula with the poison unless 1080 drops stopped by the end of March.
Fonterra and Federated Farmers were each sent a letter in November containing the blackmail threat and powder. It tested positive for concentrated forms of 1080. No further correspondence has been received.
New Zealand Infant Formula Exporters Association spokesperson Christopher Claridge this morning said reductions in orders for some exporters of infant formula to the China market had been significant.
"They are in line with what's happened during the DCD event and the botulism event in which case orders were reduced by upwards of 75 percent or they were completely cancelled.
"That's pretty standard after an event of this case because distributors in China and the retail distribution network start to lose confidence in the New Zealand brand."
He expected it to take up to a year for the market to return to normal.
"The distributors don't want to be exposed to the risk, or the potential risk, of carrying too much New Zealand inventory or New Zealand-branded infant formulas," said Mr Claridge.
The 1080 threat is the third food safety or contamination alert that the dairy industry and MPI have had to deal with in as many years.
At the beginning of 2013, they announced the withdrawal of nitrification inhibitors used by some farmers after residues of the active ingredient DCD were found in some Fonterra milk products. The residues posed no human health threat, but despite that, Sri Lanka banned New Zealand milk powder imports for a time.
Then later in 2013, came the botulism false alarm, when Fonterra was forced to recall of infant formulas and other products containing whey protein concentrate.
Waikato University professor of agribusiness Jacqueline Rowarth describes the threat to poison infant formula as economic terrorism.
Dr Rowarth said there should be huge consequences for the person who made the threat, to make sure there are no copycat actions.
She told Nine to Noon the Government had handled the situation well, and she backed the move by officials to not reveal the threat until after testing had cleared products.
"The three-month interim between when Federated Farmers and the milk companies knew about it, and MPI, we've ensured, we've bolted down every single thing. But mostly it's been through testing because our actual supply chain is really secure."


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Dare to dream up a toy that will pull kids away from the computer screen and entice them outside to play. That was the task handed to industrial design students at Cleveland Institute of Art eight weeks ago -- along with a copy of "The Daring Book for Girls," a best seller that helps girls discover the fun of adventurous play.
On Thursday May 1, it was time for students to show their work. And an all-star panel was there to look over their projects.
"Daring Book" co-author Andrea Buchanan visited Cleveland and gave the students her perspective as an author but also as a mom of a young son and daughter.
And three designers from Hudson-based Little Tikes toy company brought their real-world experience to the judging, prodding students to consider the packaging, promotion and overall practicality of the ideas.
Student ideas ranged from the Sand and Seabox, a reconfigurable plastic tray that "lets you play with sand and water in the same place," to the Bonkers Bouncer, a golf bag-shaped toy that kids can slide their feet into, then grasp the handles and jump up and down on a spring-like base.
Design students were instructed to talk to friends and relatives with young children and to think about their own childhood experiences to spark their imaginations.
Sophomore Jerzy Glica, who grew up on a farm where he collected bugs, rocks and other oddities, came up with a see-through container that kids can use to display and share their curious findings.
Judges liked his innovative idea, which featured a hook so it could ride on a belt and a light to better see the contents.
Aaron Drake drew compliments for an obstacle-course kit filled with plastic logs and rocks, plus foam pads to serve as steppingstones. He said his inspiration came from memories of childhood, when he pretended to jump through hot lava or across a log ladder. "I always thought that was a fun, open-ended game you could play anywhere."
Immediately, someone suggested that it could have an Indiana Jones tie-in. Judges agreed it had "great theme potential."
Buchanan, a mother of two who lives in Philadelphia, liked Drake's idea for its adventurous, outdoorsy quality. "You could have this in a city apartment, really," she told him.
Little Tikes partnered with the art institute to sponsor the student project. Jeff Gatto, a principal designer at the toy company, said the collaboration was a good fit, given that Little Tikes' familiar colorful plastic toys are designed to foster active play. "We're one of the few companies still around that doesn't rely on computers and batteries," he said.
Yet Little Tikes has been in financial trouble in recent years and laid off 50 workers at its Hudson plant in 2007.
For Little Tikes, it could be a favorable sign that "The Daring Book for Girls" quickly became a best seller last year. The how-to book explains dozens of old-time fun activities for girls, such as double dutch, cats cradles and the perfect cartwheel, plus information on what boys are thinking and stories about brave women in history. The book was a spinoff of "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn and Hal Iggulden.
Finally, parents are realizing they've got to stimulate imagination in their kids, Buchanan said. "I think parents, especially parents of girls, are really looking for this sort of thing," she said.
They're realizing that girls shouldn't have to act like "mini grown-ups," she said. "It's about being a kid."


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The first cross-Strait chartered cargo plane will land at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Thursday morning, the China News reported.
Taiwan's biggest carrier, China Airline, will transport cargo via a Boeing 747-400 freighter from Taipei. The cargo will include eight-inch wafer apparatuses, which will be sent to a facility of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the world's biggest chip maker, in Songjiang District.
Taiwan's transport authority released the details on July 7, on how to apply for the cross-Strait chartered cargo flights, said Taiwan-based Economic Daily.
In addition to a cargo service, the mainland and the island are stepping up efforts to open direct passenger flights.
During the past two Spring Festivals, Taiwanese and mainland airliners have operated dozens of chartered flights to carry Taiwanese citizens, who work on the mainland, back to their home for the traditional Chinese holiday.


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An old colleague of mine, let’s call him “Tom,” had a theory regarding productivity and the car. He often drove from New York to Washington, D.C., following the New Jersey Turnpike and i95, at strange hours in the early morning; and his theory was that he could multitask.
This past week, technology and entertainment news has been largely dominated by Amazon, as they launched six new Echo devices and revealed insight into the final stages of their strategy to move further into movie production and distribution.
You’ve likely heard of cord cutting, the trend toward cancelling cable TV in lieu of streaming video or no paid TV service at all. This trend, which is becoming more mainstream, is no longer just a behavior of innovators who test the waters of new technology. In fact, it’s so pervasive that media companies such as Disney, CBS, and HBO, have or are in the process of decoupling their programming from the traditional pay-TV distribution machine, now offering streaming services that don’t require you to buy a large bundle of channels, but rather subscribe to the core content they offer.
The initial fanfare of last week’s Apple announcements has subsided and the debate has moved from what will be announced to which device consumers will purchase. What we have seen so far from data collected by market intelligence company, CivicScience1, is that consumers are fairly divided.
While the smartwatch is still not a mass-market device, with roughly 9.5 percent penetration among U.S. adults as of the middle of 2017, Apple has certainly been doing its part to push the category in that direction. Apple currently owns more than 50 percent of the U.S. smartwatch market and the newly announced Apple Watch Series 3 will further bolster Apple’s status as the top smartwatch maker in the industry.
This year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) Americas is, in many ways, a story of edges. Smartphone manufacturers are clearly demonstrating that phones should have less edge, while the networks that enable these devices will require a far greater edge presence to succeed in the future.
Tomorrow, Apple is expected to launch its next generation iPhone. Assuming the anticipated announcement becomes a reality, this will mark 10 years since Apple entered the smartphone market and fundamentally changed not only what we expect from a phone, but also the competitive landscape for mobile phones – and smartphones in particular. Theoretically, this next iPhone should be an incremental enhancement, following Apple’s pattern of launching the “S” version every other year; but, Apple cannot (and will not) simply launch a minor hardware update for the 10th anniversary. Apple is working to stay at the leading edge of the market as competition looks to build faster and more aesthetically pleasing alternatives to the iPhone behemoth.
The lady sitting in front of me on the tram was clearly into her music. She was using headphones, but it didn’t really make much of a difference. The tram driver came back with the request for her to turn her iPhone volume down, which she did. In the relative quiet that followed, I realized that there were two tech issues addressed by that single moment. Firstly, in a future (or in some places, current) world where there is no tram driver anymore, we would have continued to listen to the tinny echoes of Eric passing through the headphones; and secondly, tech smarts can (at least for now) be ignored at will by the consumer.
LeEco’s vision for the U.S. was bright and promising, but a bit more fleeting than some anticipated. The company started that way, with a spectacular launch event that promised an array of hardware (from TVs and VR, to a connected bike and self-driving car) as part of a much broader vision to be the ultimate content ecosystem. But its strategy quickly started to show flaws, with little positive news following the initial hurrah, and a slow trickle of doubts and rumors about if it was possible to turn the LeEco dream into reality.
Spring is making a late arrival in New York this year, and the delay is beginning to take its toll. Last week, as I prepared to drive back from the warm, balmy air of Virginia towards New York, I decided to take the top off of my Jeep for a taste of spring. Despite knowing it was a rainy day back home, I took my chances and tried to judge how far I could push it before pulling over to put the roof back on. Naturally, I sought the advice of my smartphone’s digital assistant...


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WASHNGTON — Facebook might have to modify its involvement in the proposed digital currency project Libra if it does not receive approval from U.S. regulators, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday at a House Financial Services Committee hearing.
Libra, which Facebook proposed in June as a “global currency and financial infrastructure,” is set to launch in 2020. The currency will not be run by Facebook itself, but rather by a nonprofit association, the Libra Association, which was officially founded last week.
Given Zuckerberg’s insistence that Libra is separate from Facebook and that he cannot control the association, lawmakers questioned how Facebook would guarantee it would get U.S. regulatory approval.
Zuckerberg conceded that Facebook would be “forced to leave” the governance organization if the currency is launched without U.S. government approval.
“If at the end of the day we don’t receive the clearances,” Zuckerberg said, “we will not be a part of the association.”
The Facebook CEO was the sole witness during the hours-long hearing on the impact of the proposed cryptocurrency on the financial sector. He defended Libra as the solution to a “failing current system” and a “stagnant financial industry.”
“I view the American financial infrastructure as outdated,” said Zuckerberg. “If America doesn’t innovate, our financial leadership isn’t guaranteed. The idea is that sending money should be easy and secure as sending a message. Libra can help.”
Lawmakers pressured Zuckerberg on Libra’s ability to meet standards to guarantee consumer safety and expressed worries that it might be used for the sale of illegal drugs, weapons and child pornography.
“You’re trying to help those for whom the dollar is not a good currency – drug dealers, terrorists, tax evaders,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif.
The G-7 recently stated that it would block Libra if it did not meet security standards.
Amid mounting criticism, eight of the 28 founding members of the Libra governance association recently pulled out of the project. These include Visa, Mastercard, Ebay and PayPal. Uber, Lyft and Spotify are among the 21 remaining members.
“Facebook’s internal motto was for a long time ‘move fast and break things.’ Mr. Zuckerberg, we do not want to break the international monetary system,” New York Rep. Nydia Velázquez said.


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China’s unbranded goods are frequently higher than the branded originals they imitate, founding father ofe-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma has said, posing an extra challenge to the warfare in opposition tosales of counterfeits.
“The problem is that the faux merchandise nowadays, they make better quality, higher rate than theactual product, than the actual names,” he stated in a speech at Alibaba’s investor’s day in the southerntown of Hangzhou Tuesday.
“they’re the precise factories, the exact uncooked materials, however they do not use that call,” hebrought.
China’s factories have traditionally churned out products for branded corporations at low value, but with the upward push of e-commerce systems including Alibaba, they’re an increasing number of findingopportunities to marketplace their own goods on line directly to consumers.
more than IP troubles or faux products, it became this shift to a brand new business model that became“destroying” conventional manufacturers and “revolutionizing the complete global“, Ma said, noting: “Themanner of doing enterprise has changed.”
Alibaba has come underneath hearth in current years for the ease at which knock-off items are available toclients on its on line Taobao market.
Taobao is predicted to keep extra than 90 percentage of the domestic consumer-to-consumer market, at the same time as the enterprise‘s Tmall platform is assumed to have over 1/2 of China’s commercial enterprise-to-customer transactions.
as the main force in China’s e-commerce industry, Ma stated Alibaba may want to take care of theproblem of counterfeits “better than any authorities, any corporation, any people in the world“, but that a persevered marketplace for reasonably-priced knock-offs became unavoidable.
“We can’t solve the problem a hundred percentage, as it‘s fighting towards human intuition,” he said.
yet the employer‘s efforts to date have been the situation of growing scrutiny.
“it’s inappropriate for someone of Jack Ma’s reputation to say some thing like this,” Cao Lei, director of the China E-trade research middle in Hangzhou, instructed Bloomberg news.
“For some man or woman cases what he is saying is probably true, but it’s wrong to generalise the phenomenon.”
download the gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the trendy tech news, productreviews, and exclusive deals at the famous mobiles.
Tags: Alibaba, Apps, net, Jack Ma


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Microsoft's disastrous roll-out of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update was put into stark focus last week when published data showed its adoption was only an eighth that of its 2017 predecessor.
According to statistics gathered by AdDuplex, a Lithuanian company whose technology is embedded in thousands of Windows Store apps, Windows 10 October 2018 Update – 1809 in Microsoft's yymm labeling format – had been installed on just 6.6% of all Windows 10 systems by year's end.
[ Related: Windows 10 October 2018 Update: Key enterprise features ]
That was a small fraction of the 53.6% powered by 1709 – Windows 10's second feature upgrade of 2017 – at the close of that year.
To read this article in full, please click here


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Why owning an electric car in Norway could become more expensive
Norway’s transport ministry says it is considering scrapping or reducing tax discounts for electric vehicles.
Tax and toll deductions for electric cars could soon be scrapped or reduced in Norway’s larger cities as the country’s transport ministry is concerned public transport is losing out to low-emissions vehicles.
Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård told broadcaster NRK on Tuesday that discounts for electric cars could be withdrawn.
A law previously passed by parliament holds that electric cars should never incur more than 50 percent of the tax applied to petrol and diesel equivalents.
But reduced public transport revenues related to higher electric car use, as well as lower intakes from tolls around Oslo because the rate paid by electric cars is lower, are causing the government to rethink, NRK reports.
The loss in traffic revenues from tolls makes it harder to invest in infrastructure projects, while poorly performing public transport could result in cutbacks, the minister said according to NRK.
“We have seen a trend, especially during the pandemic, that car traffic has returned,” Nygård said to the broadcaster.
“It’s great that people use electric cars. But we are not well served by people get into their cars and drive into busy city areas instead of walking, bicycling or taking public transport,” he also said.
A final decision on the matter is yet to be taken, the minister said.
Norway’s owners’ association for electric cars, Elbilforeningen, said it opposed cutting discounts for green vehicles.
“(The government) is now considering throwing climate politics under the bus. We must remember that over 80 percent of cars in Norway still run on fossil fuels,” the organisation’s general secretary Christina Bu told NRK.
“We know that the toll (discounts) are one of the most important reasons for people choosing electric cars,” she said.


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Unfortunately for victims, the malware is extremely difficult to uninstall due to the fact it takes control of the phone at such a deep level, thus Hummer
can't be uninstalled with traditional antivirus tools, nor can it be deleted through a factory reset.
GM stopped producing Hummers
in 2009, the year it underwent restructuring and a government-sponsored bankruptcy.
traces its origins to the Humvee military vehicle and acquired a devoted following among SUV lovers and celebrities.
GM bought the Hummer
brand from AM General in 1999 and went on to produce several civilian models.
GM has not built any new Hummers
at its plant in Shreveport, Louisiana, since mid-January and currently has about 2,500 vehicles in dealer inventory.
We are excited about some of the initiatives already underway at Hummer
that we believe our investment will be able to accelerate, particularly related to the creation of the next generation of more fuel-efficient vehicles to meet not only future regulations but also customer expectations,'' he said.
Tengzhong, a little-known heavy machinery maker, has been in detailed negotiations with GM since it announced an initial plan in June to acquire the premium off-road Hummer
It's most popular with boys between about 9 and 15 years but girls are starting to get in on it too, especially as we have a hot pink Hummer
GM refused to disclose the financial terms of the Hummer
deal, but bankers have said it could be worth about pounds 61 million in cash in addition to other commitments.
Steve Caitlin, from Hummer
, said: "We are delighted to provide such tangible support to one of the country's most vital charities.
Schwarzenegger was a fan of the original Hum-Vee military vehicle from which the Hummer
was derived, and he has claimed that he suggested the vehicle could be adapted for civilian use.
Lunn lost control of the Hummer
and crashed in Winchendon.


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“Out with the old, in with the new” seems to be an accurate way to describe the trend happening in the out-performance of light trucks to its traditional car counterparts in new vehicle sales.
For years, sales between light trucks (which includes SUVs and CUVs) and cars have been evenly split or even favored cars more because of their fuel economy. In the past three years it seems that trend has changed. The sale of light trucks have been dominating the auto industry and more people every day seem to be making the switch.
Looking at the Bloomberg figure below annual vehicles sales were roughly 50/50 until about 2013. Since then, the sales of light trucks have stayed on a steady increase while car sales have struggled. In 2018 light truck sales dominated by a ratio of about 2:1.
In December 2018, the number of reported passenger car sales were down 10.5% from 2017 at 462,389 vehicles. On the other hand in the same month, light truck sales were up about 7%, selling well over 1 million units. When looking at the full year of 2018 we see that light trucks increased 8% overall, reaching well over 11 million vehicles. Cars struggled, selling just about 5 and a half million vehicles.
What is causing consumers to heavily favor light trucks (SUVs, CUVs, smaller pickups) over traditional smaller cars in the past few years?
So why the switch? One reason families are favoring trucks is for the space. Light trucks hold more storage area and for the bigger families are more comfortable. An option for consumers who are looking for this are SUVs and CUVs. These two models serve as an alternative that consumers are purchasing because it gives them a high seat off the road and they get the same luxury feeling without purchasing a pickup. However, pickups are also being modified from a labor vehicle to a more luxurious everyday vehicle.
Gas prices played a significant role in pushing more people to purchase light trucks. There is a clear correlation between the drop in gas prices and the steady climb of truck sales. The reasoning for this is the fact that consumers do not have to worry as much about gas prices making it more affordable to own bigger vehicles.
Even if gas prices soar- which energy analysts don’t forecast – consumers are more likely now to switch to a smaller, more fuel efficient SUV, than abandon their beloved bigger rigs. -Jeff Schuster, Analyst with LMC AutomotiveBloomberg, “The American Sedan Is Dying. Long Live the SUV”
Many automakers are starting to see the trend and have been refocusing their strategies. For example, Ford motor company has begun to cut back on the making of their popular car models and start producing more SUVs and CUVs.
Ford is moving $7 billion in engineering funding away from cars and into SUVs.
We anticipate SUVs becoming more and more popular, which is why we are focusing a lot of our investment in that segment. -Raj Nair, Head of Ford’s North American operationsBloomberg, “The American Sedan Is Dying. Long Live the SUV”
Volkswagen is another group following this trend, as they start to remove the well known “buggy” from American showrooms and around the globe soon after. Changes in regulation made by the Trump administration for fuel-economy standard reduces the pressure for companies to reach a high miles per-gallon in their vehicles. This makes companies less attracted to making cars, and gives them an advantage to crack into this booming market.
Sale of light trucks continue to dominate the auto industry and don’t seem to be letting up. The numbers speak for themselves, we are in the year of the truck.


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Design patent of the upcoming new Victory Octane dragster leaks online.
We’ve seen two very ambiguous video teasers of the upcoming new Victory Octane dragster. Now, we get a much clearer idea (literally) on how the American brand’s new model will look like as design patents have leaked online.
These leaked design patents shows how the bike will possibly look like when it finally debuts on February 19.
As previously reported, the new Victory Octane will be powered by a new DOHC 1,200cc V-twin engine with quad-valves per cylinder, which was previewed in the brand’s Project 156 Pikes Peak racer and more recently in the Victory Ignition concept.
With these drawings, we can see that the Octane will have the same cast aluminium frame as the Ignition concept. Reports also indicate that the exterior was penned by Victory design chief Greg Brew, which leaves almost no doubt about the bike’s final looks.
On the engine front, the drawings show that the new Victory 1,200cc mill shares an identical bottom end with the1,133cc V-twin mill primed in the Indian Scout. Though this is the smallest engine ever produced by Victory, it promises to be the brand’s most powerful one ever.
Victory declined on revealing exact power figures, but the most recent teaser video indicates the mill’s race car-line soundtrack, suggesting it will rival against the likes of the Harley-Davidson V-Rod and Ducati XDiavel.
More details will be available as soon as the Victory Octane debuts officially later this month.


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Sony's use of digital rights management for some of its CDs (apparently about 20 titles with more to come) has generated a lot of interest over the past couple of days. The issue stems from the installation of a program on the users' computers that is tough to find, difficult to remove, and which may pose a security threat by rendering the computers more vulnerable to hackers. Although the license agreement for the software advises that a program will be installed on users' computers, many commentators do not believe that the license fully informs users about the nature of the program or its potential impact.
Leaving aside the irony that this is the same music industry that has regularly sought to characterize file sharing as a significant threat due to the potential to download spyware (apparently you don't need Kazaa for that, store bought Sony CDs will do), it is worth asking whether Canadian law would provide consumers with much recourse.
There is no indication that the Sony DRM program raises privacy concerns – this program seeks to establish limits on the use of the content, not to collect, use or disclose personal information. Accordingly, PIPEDA is presumably of little assistance.
David Fewer, the lead on CIPPIC' s anti-spyware efforts, notes that there are several other potential legal remedies including trespass to chattels, a Competition Act claim for materially deceptive statements, or a consumer protection claim for false, misleading or deceptive statements. Each of these would face an uphill fight, however, since license agreements can be worded broadly to address claims of deception.
If current law is unable to address the intentional implementation of computer vulnerabilities with minimal disclosure, it is time to think about reform. Some U.S. state anti-spyware legislation would address this issue, as some prohibit intentional interference with a user' s attempt to uninstall a computer program. Alternatively, lawmakers should take seriously my colleague Ian Kerr' s suggestion of a ban on anti-privacy circumvention.
Simply put, contract should not be used as end-around statutory privacy and consumer protections. Until the law is changed, however, there is another approach as Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal argued a couple of weeks ago, consumers should not buy CDs loaded with DRM restrictions.


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Though the recession still casts a shadow over the technology market, some upbeat reports about chips, PCs and mobile devices helped strengthen confidence in the sector this week.
Gartner on Thursday issued a forecast for global PC shipments that went well beyond prior estimates. It now expects unit shipments to hit 366.1 million this year, a 19.7 percent increase from 2009, and forecasts spending on PCs to reach $245 billion, up 12.2 percent.
In December, Gartner forecast 13.3 percent growth in PC shipments and 1.9 percent growth in spending for 2010.
The market will be "robust" for several years as consumer demand stays strong and businesses replace older PCs as the economy recovers, Gartner said.
"The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner. "Mini-notebooks are again forecast to boost mobile PC growth in 2010, but their contribution is expected to decline noticeably afterward, as they face growing competition from new ultra-low-voltage (ULV) ultraportables and next-generation tablets."
In a separate report Thursday, Gartner said that global sales of touch-screen mobile devices will exceed 362.7 million units this year, up 96.8 percent from 2009.
The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) kicked the week off Monday by reporting that global semiconductor sales in January were $22.5 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from December sales. That might not seem like a big jump, but typically there is a drop in chip sales after the end-of-year holiday buying season.
What's more, January semiconductor sales increased 47.2 percent from January 2009, during the worst of the recession, when sales were $15.3 billion, the SIA said.
"Worldwide semiconductor sales in January increased significantly compared to one year ago, reflecting today's improving business environment for the industry," said SIA President George Scalise in the monthly semiconductor report.
"We are currently seeing strength across a range of demand drivers for semiconductors, including personal computers, cell phones, automobiles, and industrial applications," Scalise said. "If the current trends continue, there is upside potential for 2010 growth above our November forecast of $242.1 billion, but a growing global economy driven by consumer purchasing will be key to sustaining these trends," Scalise said.
Even though major IT companies like Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Google and Apple reported increases in sales for their last quarter, continuing doubts about the speed of economic recovery have kept a lid on vendor shares lately. In this climate the SIA and Gartner reports can only cheer tech investors.
The SIA report, for example, was widely credited with sparking an uptick in shares of chip vendors. At the close of markets Monday, Intel shares jumped $0.37 to $20.87, Advanced Micro Devices shares rose $0.30 to $8.21 and Texas Instruments shares increased $0.25 to $24.63.
The fortunes of chip, hardware and memory makers are closely intertwined, as Gartner and the SIA noted, and several vendors in those areas got a boost from analyst upgrades this week. UBS on Tuesday upgraded shares of Dell from neutral to buy, setting a price target of $16 per share and saying that company shares appear attractive at current levels. The firm said margins have likely bottomed out and should increase. Dell shares closed Tuesday at $13.68, up by $0.11, and stayed in that range through Thursday.
Memory maker SanDisk got upgrades from Wedbush Morgan on Monday and UBS on Tuesday. UBS said it expects handset growth to boost SanDisk earnings. SanDisk closed Monday at $32.63, up by $3.48, and stayed at the $32 level through Thursday.
Tech market news was not entirely upbeat this week. Networking vendor Ciena on Thursday reported a loss of $53.3 million for the quarter ending Jan. 31, compared with a year-earlier loss of $24.8 million. Company officials cited some delays in user certification for new platforms. Though that is not unusual, and revenue for the period rose 5.1 percent to $175.9 million, investors appeared to be spooked by a so-so forecast for the current quarter. The company forecast second-quarter revenue to be $185 million to $195 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were forecasting sales of $194 million. Ciena shares slumped by $0.58 to close Thursday at $13.97.
The tech-oriented Nasdaq closed Thursday at 2292, up by 11.63 points. However, even though tech companies have in the past week recovered some ground that was lost after the 18-month market high point in January, shares most likely will be on a rollercoaster ride for some time unless macroeconomic reports start trending steadily upward. On Friday, for example, tech stocks will be affected, along with the rest of the market, by the February jobs report due from the U.S. government.


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There is a fine line between gaming and gambling and more often than not it is blurred beyond recognition. Loot boxes are still an integrated part in many computer games that have also taken the world by storm with the help of eSports. Now the University of British Columbia has discovered an intrinsic link between typical gambling triggers and the experience many video game players have on a regular basis.
It is no secret to anyone that there are many gambling features sprinkled throughout our day-to-day lives. Such could be found on social media with the swipe to refresh feature that allows players to drag down the news feed for an instant refresh and a new batch of content. This motion very much resembles the lever of a traditional slot machine, later introduced in their modern versions. Something few parents and players realize is that video games also feature a familiar gambling feature.
Loot Boxes Equal Gambling
Loot boxes are a feature of many popular games to the likes of Star Wars Battlefront 2 and many more. These random boxes come with a certain prize and introduce the element of chance to the otherwise inconspicuous game. Ever since the summer of 2017, said loot boxes have been in the spotlight of attention with their potentially harmful effect on children and easily impressionable minds.
Now the University of British Columbia has concluded its extensive study on the subject, finding a clear connection between the principle of operation of said random boxes and gambling activities available at traditional casino venues. The player purchases a loot box and their prize could be anything from valuable items to very rare equipment that could boost their character’s in-game development.
Purchases are done via tokens fueled by real-life currency. According to the study, as many as 93.8 percent of the individuals have played a video game featuring loot boxes at least once in their life. Some 88.9 percent of them have purchased said boxes in an attempt to try their luck and possibly make a considerable jump in their character development. When it comes to studying addictive behavior, realizing the problematic behavior is the first step.
UBC Discover the Link between Them
Participants in the analysis had to give answers related to the gaming behavior and habits they have, which were later on compared to typical gambling behavior associated with extensive time spent on slot machines and table games both online and in brick-and-mortar facilities. Following a thorough analysis, a relation was identified.
About 79.3 percent of the individuals participating in the study pointed out that loot boxes bring the same amount of excitement and a general feeling of wagering. Meanwhile, 86.2 percent of the players confirm that loot boxes are truly a form of gambling in their essence. The said random boxes are an issue among not only Canadian players, but also when it comes to players from around the globe.
Countries part of the European Union have also discussed the issue at the Gambling Regulators European Forum in September 2018. As many as 15 countries inked the statement introduced. May 2018 also saw the Belgian Gaming Commission classify loot boxes as gambling, which eventually saw giants to the likes of Blizzard, Valve, and EA remove the loot boxes from their games in Belgium.


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U.S. CUSTOMS STOPS CAPTURING SECURITY ON CF 28 FORMS
The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has ended the practice of using a questionnaire designed for tariff purposes to gather information about a company's security policies and practices.
'We have directed our field directors to cease sending CF 28s with the 11 questions related to supply chain security' and not seek responses from those that received the forms, said Jay Ahern, assistant commissioner for field operations, during a public meeting with industry advisors. The decision was made because Customs did not seek required approval from the Office of Management and Budget, he said.
The CF 28 form is a request for information sent to companies by import specialists to help classify, appraise and determine the admissibility of imported merchandise after it has entered the United States. But transportation brokers and importers complained that Customs began adding security questions in an apparent attempt to get information from companies that have not shared security profile with the border security agency as part of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).
The penalties for failing to respond to CF 28 requests include redelivering the cargo to Customs or fines based on the value of the goods. Many importers say they felt pressure to join C-TPAT, and that Customs used the form, along with the implied threat of sanctions, as a way to get C-TPAT type data from companies that had not voluntarily joined C-TPAT.
'They are using what they have at hand in ways not intended,' said Kenneth Bargteil, vice president of Kuehne & Nagel, in an interview at the recent National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America conference in San Antonio. 'The implications for the trade are rather chilling.'


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Shoppers went for more convenient dinner options for Christmas 2021
Shoppers here shunned fresh turkeys for their Christmas Day feast in 2021, with sales of whole birds down one-third, a report has said.
As supermarkets fill their shelves with Easter eggs well ahead of the next major event in the shopping calendar, the latest grocery market report from Kantar shed light on what we were buying in the run-up to Christmas.
Sales of festive biscuits, and treats like chocolate wafers and Jaffa Cakes, were up, the research company said.
But its December report found shoppers were no longer embracing the challenge of cooking a whole turkey, going instead for more convenient cuts like a turkey crown.
Many even opted for a different meat altogether, Kantar said, with sales of beef across 2021 as a whole up 2.7%.
And with the option to dine out more freely available in the run-up to Christmas 2021, spending on groceries was down 8% in the 12 weeks before Christmas compared to the same period in 2020.
With people freer to drop in on family and friends over Christmas, compared to the stricter regime in place last year, sales of seasonal biscuits were up by nearly 7%.
Kantar said that across the year as a whole, we were spending 4.1% less in supermarkets compared to 2020, when intermittent lockdowns left us with no option but to spend more in supermarkets at a time when we were unable to eat out.
However, sales in supermarkets and convenience stores were 8.2% higher than 2019, demonstrating how the pandemic has been good for the grocery trade.
For symbol groups like Mace, Centra and Spar, the pandemic bounce appeared to have been shortlived.
Sales in such convenience stores in the 52 weeks leading up to Christmas were 14.8% lower than during 2020.
Emer Healy, retail analyst at Kantar, said: “The latest 12 weeks shows an 8.0% decline in grocery market sales, as shoppers bought 6.9% fewer items and the number of trips to stores decreased by 5.2%.
"This reflects a more open Christmas this year, with people spending money in restaurants, bars, and pubs rather than buying all their food and drink at supermarkets.”
Tesco, which has around 50 stores here, remains Northern Ireland’s biggest grocer with a market share of 35.6%. Its sales were down 3.1% over the year.
Sainsbury’s, which has 14 stores, is the second-biggest grocer with market share of 17%, while Asda, with 17 stores, is in third place, with a 16% share.
But at 4.4%, Sainsbury’s year on year decline in sales was steeper than Asda, at 3.3%.
In fourth place, Lidl has market share of 7%, and with growth of 4.5%, it was the only big supermarket to gain sales over the years. Its growth contributed an additional £20.8m to its overall performance.
She added that the four largest supermarkets “either maintained or grew their market share this year, reflecting a sharp drop off in the use of symbols and independent stores since the height of the pandemic in 2020”.


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The primary operating principles of the digital asset trading platform operated by MaiCoin and the digital asset exchange operated by its wholly owned subsidiary, MAX, are "active compliance with laws and regulations, user protection, and restriction of risks properly." [Citation needed]
In addition, MaiCoin stated that it has never included FTT on either its main platform or any of its subsidiaries. As a result, neither the organization nor the people who utilize its platform are directly impacted.
The company would want to make it clear that it only conducts business with FTX.com for the purposes of liquidity management and hedging. Despite this, MaiCoin made the announcement that it has exposure to FTX.com with a value of about 260.546 dollars.
On the other hand, it was made clear that this would not have any effect on the company's operations. According to individuals who are acquainted with the matter, the cryptocurrency exchange MaiCoin, which is located in Taipei, is reportedly considering offering its shares on Nasdaq within the next two years.
According to documents that have been validated by Bloomberg, MaiCoin anticipates that, following its listing on the Nasdaq, its trading revenue would climb by more than 70% yearly through the year 2025.
Earlier in this month, BitoEX revealed that it had withdrew its money from FTX, although ACE stated that its business activities had not been affected in any way by this development.
In 2014, BitoEX entered into a partnership with the FamilyMart convenience store chain in East Asia to enable payments to be made using bitcoin at its digital kiosks. In addition, in May of 2018, the exchange held an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which resulted in the collection of $10 million.
The Cryptographic Climate of Taiwan
In the beginning of this year, Taiwan's largest chain of convenience stores, 7-11, joined a competitor of Maicoin's called BitoEX and began offering Bitcoin purchases in thousands of FamilyMart, OK-Mart, and Hi-Life stores all across the island. Through the use of a cell phone number and a PIN combination mechanism, the service sends Bitcoins directly to the wallets of its subscribers.
Because of Taiwan's stringent anti-money laundering (AML) rules, a number of Bitcoin exchanges there were shuttered at the beginning of this year. Despite the fact that the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has the authority to monitor the market, there is still a lack of complete regulatory clarity in Taiwan's cryptocurrency space.
Because of this, local businesses are put off by the absence of a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets.


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Vita rhythm game Orgarhythm coming to PSN October 23
XSEED announced today that real-time strategy rhythm game (!?) Orgarhythm will be released on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation Vita on October 23. It will be priced at $29.99 per download.
For those not keeping up with the game, Orgarhythm was develped by Acquire and new studio Neilo, which is headed up by Takashi Hirai, a member of the Rez and Space Channel 5 dev team. We called it weird at E3, but that shouldn't stop you from picking it up next month. A game mechanic where you're deploying your forces to a beat is enough to have me convinced. Setup email comments
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Ingenico SA is buying easycash Beteiligungen GmbH, a German payment processor, for $426 million from Warburg Pincus LLC, a New York private-equity firm, the point of sale terminal maker announced Friday.
Easycash provides terminal sales, transaction processing and loyalty programs in Germany, Ingenico, of France, said, noting it will use easycash to "leverage on the growth of payment transactions in the coming years."
During a conference call with analysts Friday, Ingenico CEO Philippe Lazare said the payments company is targeting Eastern Europe for expansion.
Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said Ingenico is integrating vertically into the payments value chain.
"They're going away from just providing the terminal. The reason they're doing that is that part of the payments value chain has higher growth and higher [profit] margins," Luria said. "They feel that can help the company grow faster and become more profitable."
Easycash has 275,000 point of sale terminals, which generate more than 1 billion transactions, Lazare said, estimating that approximately 33% of the terminals are Ingenico devices. Easycash customers will not be forced to switch their terminals to Ingenico devices. "Most of the time customers are making their own choices, and we'll respect that," he said. Easycash generated revenue of $126 million in 2008, Ingenico said. Warburg Pincus bought easycash in 2006 from First Data Corp. The sale price was not disclosed.


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Nintendo’s third quarter earnings report released earlier today and contains a few notable pieces of information. Most of the report is relatively good news for the company as it looks to roll out the Switch in just a few weeks. The company now shows an operating income of over 26 billion yen, which is a big improvement over last quarter’s nearly 6 billion yen loss.
Most of this improvement is due to its move into the mobile market. The popularity of Pokémon GO increased sales of the 3DS Pokémon Sun and Moon games, as well as the 3DS systems themselves. Sales of 3DS hardware increased 10% over the same period last year while software for the system saw a 20% boost, thanks largely to the Pokémon GO effect and the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon. Empty shelves where 3DS systems used to be sold can attest that this sale uptick caught retailers and Nintendo a little off guard. The only hope the report can offer to continue this 3DS sales trend is to “continue the buzz” around the new Pokémon games and the million-selling Super Mario Maker for the system. Super Mario Sports Superstars is the only upcoming release highlighted in the report, which makes it seem like 3DS Pikmin is definitely getting pushed deeper into 2017.
The Wii U had no such lift in its sales as hardware continued to slump at 75% below last year’s levels, and game sales were similarly dire. Amiibo sales remained flat, mainly due to a lack of significant new products being released that use the figures.
The real bright spot is Nintendo’s big push into the mobile space, with Super Mario Run being their biggest bragging point; they continue to tout the forty million downloads in four days statistic instead of providing updated figures. The disappointment for them to some degree is they saw only roughly 5% of that convert into purchases of the full game. Looking ahead, they are releasing Fire Emblem Heroes for mobile on February 2nd and a port of Super Mario Run for Android in March. Supporting these releases (either from the development side or the promotional side is unclear) has pushed the Animal Crossing mobile game “into the next fiscal year", which puts it into at least April.
What are your thoughts on Nintendo moving into the mobile space now that it is clearly a big boost for their bottom line? Do you think they can continue to count on mobile game sales to carry them through if the Switch fizzles? Share your thoughts in the comments below!


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Deepika Padukone says fashion for her is being able to effortlessly blend what is in trend with her individual authentic style.
Actress Kangana Ranaut has shared how her fashion sense has evolved over the years, and defines fashion as freedom of expression.
French Fashion label Chanel brought a touch of tinseltown to the Paris runway on Tuesday, with glamorous feathered gowns and a nod to the Hollywood sign, recreated to spell out the brand's name.
French fashion label AMI pushed the boat out for its latest fashion show in Paris on Saturday - hosting its catwalk display on the banks of the Seine river at dusk.
A hybrid Paris Fashion Week continued Wednesday featuring a stand out live runway show from socially-distanced Kenzo, but no sign of any A-list celebrities.
Demi Moore made a surprise appearance at Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris by opening Fendi's Spring-Summer 2021 show.
Christian Dior said on Monday it would press ahead with a calendar of fashion shows for this year starting in July with an Italian catwalk display - but without the celebrated front-row audience of A-listers.
Even something as deadly as the coronavirus pandemic could not hold back Berlin-based designer Anja Gockel, from showcasing her 2021 summer collection.
The tiny group of super rich women who buy the ruinously expensive handmade creations that adorn the runways of Paris haute couture week knew that meant their favourite designers would have to come to them.


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Blaze Sunglasses - an online designer sunglasses retailer - have had a great year and are already looking forward to next summer.
Online PR News – 01-October-2010 – surrey – Although 2010’s far from over, new designer sunglasses retailer Blaze Sunglasses have had a great summer and are already looking forward to next year which they believe will be even bigger for them.
Combining an excellent selection of top branded sunglasses including Ray Ban, Bolle and Prada with excellent prices, free delivery and a price guarantee has made Blaze popular with those in the know and thanks to a recent partnership with leading search engine optimisation agency High Position, their profile has raised considerably.
It’s this focus on giving the customer what they want combined with a savvy approach to their internet marketing that the Blaze team feel gives them an edge. Tom Greaves had this to say: “2010 has been a great year for Blaze Sunglasses. The addition of new brands and customer incentives combined with increasing search engine prominence has seen monthly sales figures rise dramatically. With new brands and extended ranges coming later this year we have high hopes for 2011”.
With the continuing partnership looking set to yield even more impressive search engine positions and this expanding range of brands, Blaze Sunglasses look set for a great year in 2011.


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Lots will include Patek Philippe watches, Tiffany & Co. jewellery and of course, rare Hermès Birkins—no presidential hair this time, though.
Heritage Auctions is the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer
It is also the third largest auction house in the world in terms of annual sales volume behind only Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Heritage Auctions actually bills higher numbers than competitors Bonhams and Philips, who may be better known in Hong Kong’s auction market as Heritage has yet to bring its art business to the city.
In its role as the world’s largest collectibles auctioneer, Heritage holds numerous auctions for coins, comics, luxury handbags, sports memorabilia, historical items, books and even real estate.
No lot is too weird for Heritage, which has sold Abraham Lincoln’s hair
Heritage also sold the sixth most valuable comic book ever, Batman #1, in 2013 for US$567,625; the domain name sex.co for US$63,250; along with lots of late American President Abraham Lincoln’s hair, ranging from entire locks encased in lockets (the highest-grossing one pulled in US$38,837) to a five-strand set in a clear plastic pouch (this one yielded less than US$1,000).
Managing Director Kathleen Guzman is a celebrity
Appraiser and auctioneer Kathleen Guzman had been on Antiques Roadshow for the better part of two decades, and has appeared as an art expert on Oprah, Good Morning America and CNN’s Today.
Before joining Heritage Auctions she spent time with Christie’s and Phillips, and has had the pleasure of auctioning off items for Barbra Streisand and Marilyn Monroe’s estates.
Heritage Auction's fashion debut in Hong Kong
While the house holds quarterly wine auctions and coin and currency sales twice a year, this will be the first time it’s offering luxury fashion collectibles.
Highlights include a sapphire ring by Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co., a 2002 diamond-laden watch from Patek Philippe and an Hermès matte rose alligator Birkin.
Six auctions will take place during Heritage Week
Heritage Week runs from December 3-10 at The Mira Hong Kong, during which Heritage will host a total of six auctions.
Previews for coins and currency kick off on the 3rd, with the gavel rising and falling from the 5th-7th. Fine wines are on the block 7-8, while the debut luxury lifestyle sale is on the 10th.
Find out more about Heritage Auctions on ha.com


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Liverpool FC has teamed up with international gaming and technology company, 1xBet, in a new multi-year partnership.
The relationship will see 1xBet become the official global betting partner of Liverpool Football Club, enabling supporters to take advantage of exclusive offers and sporting entertainment.
It will use the partnership with the club to increase brand awareness within its key global markets through stadium branding at Anfield and branding on Liverpool FC’s digital platforms, along with access to first-team players and club legends, to provide fans with additional ways to interact and engage with the world of football.
One of the fastest developing companies in the betting industry, 1xBet boasts the largest number of markets in pre-match and live betting odds, alongside online games such as live casino tables and virtual slot machines.
Billy Hogan, managing director and chief commercial officer, Liverpool FC, said: “We are delighted to welcome 1xBet as our newest partner. I am sure that their games and special offers will appeal to our fans around the world and we look forward to starting the 2019/2020 season with them on board.”
Alex Sommers, 1xBet spokesman, said: “Liverpool FC is one of the world’s most iconic football clubs with a wealth of history and a huge global fanbase. We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with the club to meet our goal of bringing fans closer to the sporting action through our innovative products and supercharged betting experience.
“We’re very proud of the relationship we have with Liverpool Football Club and we’re keen to work closely with fans around the world to bring them exciting entertainment opportunities and unique offers in the upcoming season.”
Founded in 2007, the company has been quickly expanding in various regions around the world such as Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America and has already acquired many prestigious sporting partnerships.


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It has been six months since GDPR was implemented. It changed the way we think about security, compliance, and consumer consent. But how has it changed data collection, sharing, and transfer? What are the current GDPR trends? MTA finds out!
It was the afternoon of Tuesday, September 25, 2018, when the Facebook engineering team discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts. Yes, there was another data breach at Facebook. “Our investigation is still in its early stages,” wrote Guy Rosen, VP of Product Management, Facebook, as he clarified what happened: “But it’s clear that attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted ‘View As’ a feature that lets people see what their profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. Access tokens are the equivalent of digital keys that keep people logged in to Facebook, so they don’t need to re-enter their password every time they use the app.”
This piece of news brought back chilling memories of the Cambridge Analytica breach that took place in March 2018. Has GDPR helped change nothing regarding security, since its application on May 25, 2018?
What is GDPR?
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (simply called GDPR), if you remember, is a privacy regulation in EU law made for data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union and the European Economic Area.
We’ve been reading about brands and SMBs waxing eloquent about their GDPR-compliance and their new products that are utterly in sync with the new privacy regulations. We’ve been experiencing brands asking for permissions to allow them to store cookies when you log on to their websites.
Is that all there is to GDPR?
Jokes apart, GDPR compliance depends heavily on MarTech stacks, writes Amy Auriemma, Vice President, Global Marketing Operations, Infor, in her article GDPR Ready – A Marketing Leader Tells All. Auriemma says, “An organization’s marketing technology stack plays a key role in GDPR compliance. Marketing organizations must receive consent information, record how and when it was collected, and decipher the context of the permission. Doing so requires working with IT and legal to ensure marketing knows what constitutes consent, how this information is captured, and where to store it as it relates to the contact record.”
But what happens to the data collected and stored? “Along with ensuring that data is only collected for a specific purpose, GDPR also stipulates that user information should only be stored in the minimum number of locations absolutely necessary,” states, Mark Hensley Marketing Operations Manager, Liferay, in in his article GDPR: The Questions that Remain.
He adds, “But the dirty secret is that businesses often do not know themselves where, and how much, user data is being stored.” This data, Hensley says, often gets siloed in systems that do not talk to one another and whose very existence IT departments may not be aware of, “GDPR provides no clear guidelines as to who within an organization should be entrusted with access to sensitive customer data,” which means businesses are on their own to set up internal policies.
Hensley, speaks about an oft-cited challenge – the tendency of sales professionals to save customer and prospect information locally on a personal laptop or other devices. “This practice runs afoul not only of the principle of storage limitation but also of the principle of accountability. A nefarious actor is far more likely to gain access to customer data by breaching the personal device of a sales professional than to bypass the security systems of a corporation itself.” If we take the recent Facebook case cited above as an example, the security systems of big corporations do not seem to be safe either.
Perhaps the most significant impact of GDPR was on the AdTech industry. In its very format, GDPR restricts the access and use of first-party data. This leaves the advertiser completely blind when it comes to consumer preferences. GDPR also establishes strict guidelines for securing a user’s consent before advertisers can target them.
However, the initial fear of losing out on customers has subsided, according to Thomas Walle Co-founder and CEO, Unacast. In his article, titled The Pitfall of a Post-GDPR World: “Compliance” is Not Synonymous with “Quality”, Walle concludes with the slight hope that,
“While GDPR certainly caused lots of hand-wringing, the fears that it would wipe out digital ad industry have largely subsided. We’ve seen quite the opposite, as evident in the ad-tech industry’s flurry of summer M&A activity, including AT&T’s $1.6 billion AppNexus, Salesforce paying a reported $800 for Datorama, and MediaMath raising nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.”
To add to that, we’ve had Microsoft pitching us the Open Data Initiative along with Adobe and SAP. At the announcement of the initiative, Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, spoke about a single data model, which will ensure a universal data lake service on Microsoft Azure. This unified data store will allow customers their choice of development tools and applications to build and deploy services. Experts weighed in on the implications of such an initiative too.
In conclusion, we say that six months in, the trend is that GDPR is helping us move toward a future in which we make progress in digital ad regulation, have safer and transparent data compilation, and work to ensure consumer data privacy.


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Headlines of the Day
No interest in corporate farming, Reliance Jio tells Court
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has agreed to hear a petition by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. regarding damages to the company’s telecom towers.
The bench of Justice Sudhir Mittal issued a notice to the central and Punjab governments seeking their response on the petition.
In its writ petition, Jio told the high court that more than 1,500 telecom towers of the company in Punjab were either damaged or left inoperative by miscreants in the last few weeks and, as a result, its mobile network has been crippled.
Jio also accused ‘’vested interests inimical’’ to the company of spreading false rumors to the effect that Jio, its parent company Reliance Industries Ltd. and its affiliates stand to benefit from the recently passed farm laws, which have seen protests in Punjab as well as few other parts of the country.
‘’Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), or any other affiliate of our parent company, i.e., Reliance Industries Limited have not done any “corporate” or “contract” farming in the past, and have absolutely no plans to enter this business,’’ said an RIL statement issued yesterday after the petition was filed.
In its petition, a copy of which has been reviewed by BloombergQuint, Jio told the court that:
Due to a sustained disinformation campaign by vested interests, Jio’s business and its assets have become a target of attack and destruction by miscreants purporting to be engaged in public demonstrations and protests against the farm legislations.
A number of centres and stores of the company have also been forcibly closed by miscreants using illegal force and intimidation.
By exploiting the false propaganda, subscribers of the company are being forced to port to other networks.
Employees are carrying out their duty under a constant threat of life and security.
Reliance Jio also said it had earlier written to the Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh over the issue and that the authorities concerned have acted on its representations. However, the company said, there is a need for continuous deployment of resources to protect its infrastructure.
Jio requested the court to issue directions to the state and central authorities to identify and prosecute individuals responsible for the attack on its infrastructure as well as ensure continued adequate protection through the law enforcement agencies.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court will take up the case for hearing next on Feb. 8. BloombergQuint
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To celebrate the 4th of July, Nike is due to drop a commemorative Sock Dart Collection.
Matching the U.S. Independence Day anniversary, Nike’s Sock Dart collection will follow three colour pathways, white, blue and red: to the laceless and strapped sneakers will be added an entirely black sole. As sock sneakers continue to take over, this slip-on silhouette has been one of the strongest. Don’t miss the US release, on the 4th of July, at Nike and NikeLab online.